When Peaceville's Andy Turner mentioned Anathema and My DyingBride performing at the Tilburg Noorderligt venue on February19th I was thrilled to say the least. I asked for permission totake photographs and that kind of thing, which Andy claimed wouldbe no problem. He'd even put me on the guest list if I wanted. Is the pope a catholic? Upon arrival I ran in the almost proverbial complications thathave haunted me forever and that I'm afraid will keep doing sountil the day I die. I wasn't on the guest list. Andy wasn'tthere. I had just sold my cheap pre-sale ticket to a friend. Eventually I talked my way in. Permission to take photographswas allowed to anyone who bothered to, so that proved no problemeither. On the way to the concert, however, I had gotten the idea toperhaps get backstage and attempt sortof an impromptu interviewwith both Anathema and My Dying Bride. But with Andy not there Ihad a lack of a contact person. Luck laughed me right in the facewhen Darren, singer of Anathema, crossed the hall to the doorbackstage. I walked up to him and asked if perhaps he rememberedme from the Dynamo gig last year - he politely said he did - andwhether it'd be possible to have a short interview with them. "No problem," he said, grinning, and bull-shitting me past thebackstage door security people even though I had no backstagepass.

I felt really uncomfortable, don't know why. Anathema are agreat band but nothing like, say, Prince or Paul McCartney orMetallica. Somehow I felt nervous to the extreme, and I startedmaking silly English mistakes and reacting in a positively weirdfashion to answers, which all became evident when I listened backto the interview tape. What follows is faithful a transcriptionas I can make of it. Do note that it's not censored in any way,and especially fond supporters of the English conservative causemight find particular passages gruesomely offensive. Hi guys. Let's start off with a bit of a cliche and ask you yourfull names and birth dates. Darren (vocals): Darren John White, 20-2-1962. Duncan (bass): Duncan Jon Patterson, 5-6-1975. John (drums): John James Douglas, 11-7-1973. Vinnie (guitar): Vincent Cavanagh, AD 33 (couldn't make anythingbetter of this). Danny: Daniel The Antichrist, 6-6-1966 (though this date islikely untrue). With this interview I aim to give people some sort of impressionof who you are, besides the Antichrist in your mids that is. Sowhat, for example, were your first albums you ever bought, andwhich album made the most impression on you ever? Darren: Maiden's "Killers" was my first and also the mostimpressive. I don't like the current Maiden a lot, "Seventh Son"is the last of their albums I got. Duncan: "On Parole" by Motorhead. The most impressive was"Killers", and I'm not just saying that to be a stupid bastard. Vinnie: My first was Santana's "Amigos" because the guitar soloswere that good. Most impressive'd have to be Iron Maiden, thefirst album, I think everything that came after was shaped fromit. John: "Number of the Beast" (by Iron Maiden, ED.) was the first.Ah...I remember that day well...most impressive is probablyBathory's "Blood Life Death" or something. Danny: "Ride the Lightning" was my first, and that's probablythe album that made most impression on me - either that, or"Master of Puppets". That's what got me into metal most, like, soI guess that's it. "Reign in Blood" by Slayer is also anabsolutely amazing album. I guess the readers might be interested in what your next albumwill be like. Any things you'd care to divulge? Darren: Well, it will be called "Rise Pantheon Dreams" and willbe out in September. We've already written some songs, but wewon't be playing them tonight. Some titles are "The Torture ofSpring Adoration of Winter" and "Remember Me", a really hypnoticone. The music will be in the same vein, but heavier andhopefully many times better. There will be more emotion. We don'twant people just to cry, but slit their wrists. We hope it'll beproduced by Horst Mueller (he did "Sentence of Death" and"Infernal Overkill" with Destruction and Kreator's debut "EndlessPain", ED.) but otherwise we'll just do it ourselves. Danny: Our ultimate aim is to make an album that would causesomeone to blow up the house of parliament. If we actually makean album that would move someone to do that, then we'll havesucceeded as a band. Do I spot a few IRA tendencies there? Darren: No, not IRA, but terrorist. Terrorists in the right way. Danny: It's important to know who your enemy are. The IRA justkills loads of people. Darren: The enemy is society, not other people. Onto the favourites department. This was a really difficult butbecause the group members were spread throughout the room withsome of them yelling assorted remarks at each other. I passedthem a few suggestion on what they might consider mentioned theirfavourite of, leaving it mostly to themselves. Duncan: My favourite bass player is Cliff Burton. My favouriteTV series is "Neighbours" and those weird Channel 4 animationprogrammes. Fave bands are Hellhammer and [Celtic] Frost.Favourite food would be a pie, or my self-made pizzas. I'm quitean expert at pizzas. My favourite drink is milk, or Guiness. Darren: My favourite singer is Paul Diana (did he mean RoxDiamond's Paul Daniels with that?! I don't know, ED.), favouriteband Iron Maiden, but at the same time it's Slayer and probablyloads of others. Loads of bands, Uriah Heep, Status Quo,Motorhead, sure. Venom, Saxon, [Celtic] Frost. My favourite foodis toast. Vinnie: I like some good death metal bands, but there are toomany gutter bands. My fave guitarist? Dave Murray, fuckin' DaveMurray, mate. Someone burst in with the latest Aston Villa results ("what? Getout of here?!", that kind of thing). As to relieve the tension,the first band of the evening - the Dutch band Sad Whisperings -start playing a mere few yards above our heads. I worry about thesound quality of the interview recording but things turned outall right. Vinnie continues... Vinnie: I really like bacon sandwiches, and Guiness now andagain. I watch "Prisoner" (the TV series, ED.) a lot, but it'sgonna be crap now. John: I like the TV series "Mr. Ben", a child's cartoon. My favedrummer is Clive Burr (with really old Iron Maiden, ED.). He'sexcellent, and I like his smile too (mimics the smile, much toeveryone's amusement). My favourite food is pasta. Dave: I like all kinds of music, but especially heavy metal, allkinds. I don't watch much television but I listen to a lot ofmusic. My favourite guitarist is Ty Tabor of Kings X. He'stotally underrated. Early Kings X has some really good vocals,too, by the way. I like vegetarian food (Dave is the band'svegetarian and probably every caterer's nightmare probably, ED.),spaghetti and all that. Also I really like Corn Flakes. I'm areal Corn Flakes fiend. Next is the "words to react to" section. Please burst forth withwhatever comments you might want to put forth. MTV. Dave: It's a very powerful tool for the government. They justplay the trendy stuff, don't they? Vanessa Warwick should try tostick to the same hairstyle for a few shows. Vinnie: Anathema think Vanessa is sound, and you can quote me onthat. My Dying Bride. Darren: You have to ask Kevin about that. My attention hops onto a fellow who was totally inconspicuous,whom I presumed was a guitar roadie of sorts. However, it turnsout that Kevin is the fan, as Anathema members say, "A FellowCrusader". He might be splendid and all, but he's not overlyverbose Kevin: They're all right. Vinnie: Ask Kevin what he thinks of Anathema. Well, Kev', what do you think of, er...Anathema? Kevin: Ssshhh...(sighs a profoundly deep sigh)...nocomment...OK, they're good. So far for the one-off appearance of their No. 1 English fan. Dutch beer, then? Darren: I like it! I like Kroon (it's the stuff they'redrinking, ED). Vinnie: Duval! Duval! (He probably means Duvel, ED.) Hammy. Dave: He's an OK bloke. He's very image-conscious (referring toHammy appearing on MTV with eyes blotted out), a rabidsmoker...next question please. Touring. Darren: Fuckin' heavy metal! John Major. Darren: Fuckin' twat, absolute bollocks. He's a real badbastard. He's got no brains to save his bollocks, no bollocks tosave his brains. No feet to save his ass, no ass to save hisfeet. Vinnie: (Mimicing John's mode of speech) I'd just like to sayhere, John, you don't have to think for yourself...it's all laidon. Darren: That's what he would say. Dave: Up your fuckin' barstool, that's what I would say. You payyour dues like the rest, poofter, you're nothing. OK then, now for something less sensitive...Holland. Darren: Coffeeshops...windmills and Johan Cruijff. Interviews. Darren: They're shit...nah...they're usually good fun, andalways a laugh. This one's all right (I look away sortofembarrassed, well, he's just being polite again). I suppose you had many interviews with even more questions. Haveyou been waiting for this one magic question that you're dying togive the answer to, yet noone asked it? What question would itbe? Most of the speech is blotted out for a moment when Dave and hisgirlfriend go off through a direct stage exit to have a listen toSad Whisperings, bidding me goodbye. Darren thinks for a while,as if this is some kind of golden opportunity. Darren: It would have to have something to do with thecrucifixion. Er...(I think for a while)...what do you think...WAS HE GUILTYOR WASN'T HE? Darren: He hasn't been tried yet, but he's fucking guilty. I'mgonna kick him in the fucking bollocks. I'm gonna be the Romanthat put the spear in his side. I'll be one of the fellas thatgoes see the cave, pull back the stone. That's who I'll be. OrI'll be Jesus himself. I have the holes in my hand already (showsholeless hands to convince me). Vinnie: (Interrupts) Can I say this? Michael Jackson is a fuckinkiddy fiddler. Everybody knows. Darren: At first I thought he was innocent. Vinnie: I think he's uncle Ernie. Himself. The band ramble on a lot about Michael Jackson and his supposedactions. It's not that this bit is censored or anything, but it'simpossible to make out anything. Three people are cursing atMichael Jackson and, of course, Sad Whispering is still wreakinghavoc mere yards above us. When the discussion has died down Ithrow in my last question. Are your songs in any way autobiographical, wholly or partly? Darren: They are an attempt to make the spirit of people (getson the right track now)...I want to raise the dead. I wanna makeall the spirits start becoming alive again. I want people to getinto metal to become kings. Kings of their own world,invididuals, and proud of it. I want metal to do something good.I don't want to label my lyrics. It's all, like, just an attemptto raise people's spirits, to show them how shit the world is. And with that profoundly deep quote, surely the most sensiblequote this side of what must have been 4 litres of beer perperson, I concluded this chaotic but revealing interview.

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